IRGC captured American underwater drone at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz on September 8, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. U.S. Central Command said the system had malfunctioned while surveying the area, turning the episode into a direct clash over what happened to the American uncrewed submarine before Iran recovered it.
Tim Hawkins, a Navy spokesperson, told DefenseScoop that the drone was “essentially dead in the water for more than a day” before the IRGC got to it. CENTCOM said the drone was an older model and that it was not carrying any classified sonar or radar gear.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and CENTCOM
Iranian state media named the model as an Anduril Dive-LD. That matters because the dispute is not over whether Iran recovered a U.S. underwater system, but over whether the system was seized in motion or retrieved after it had already stopped working.
Tim Hawkins’ account points to the second version. His description places the drone at sea for more than a day before the IRGC reached it, which aligns with CENTCOM’s statement that the vehicle had malfunctioned during a survey of the area.
Anduril Dive-LD and Seabed Sentry
The incident also draws attention to the kind of underwater system involved. Anduril calls the Dive-LD attritable, while Seabed Sentry is a separate system that sits on the ocean floor and listens, crunching sonar data on board and sending out only the result. Each Seabed Sentry node is about 8 feet long and 21 inches across, and Anduril rates it for depths beyond 1,640 feet.
Anduril says Seabed Sentry can stay down for months or even years depending on configuration, then cut its own anchor loose and float to the surface. Shane Arnott said a crew can clean the growth off the node, charge it back up and send it down again, or fit a new payload if the mission has changed. That design explains why timing matters when an underwater system loses power or drifts inactive.
Lanternfish and the Navy screen
The same family of systems has already been tested in Lanternfish. At Lanternfish, Sea Spear picked up medium and large underwater drones moving through a channel, pushed the track through Lattice into the Navy’s command system, and an operator at the Unmanned Operations Center had it on screen within seconds. The Royal Navy says Lanternfish ran for six weeks across Virginia, Washington state and the waters off southwestern Australia.
For the U.S. military, the practical issue is the gap between a vehicle going silent and another force reaching it. For Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the claim is capture at a sensitive chokepoint; for CENTCOM, the vehicle had already failed and was not carrying classified sensor gear.
The remaining open question is the exact older model that was recovered at the Strait of Hormuz. Until that is pinned down, the public record leaves two competing descriptions on the table: an active capture at sea, or the recovery of a dead U.S. underwater drone that had been adrift for more than a day.
